Who Will Benefit from Changes in Our IP Regime?

DURING Barack Obama’s visit to India, one of the important promises Prime Minister Modi made to the US President was related to the conflict between US and India on intellectual property rights (IPR). The Joint Indo-US statement is unambiguous about whose interests matter most to the BJP government. In the name of making the country’s IPR regime investor friendly, the Modi government is promising to meet the US demands that the previous governments were unwilling to accept. So far, India’s publicly stated position was that there is no need to change the intellectual property (IP) regime.

GROWTH AND HUNGER

INDIA, we are constantly reminded, is one of the more rapidly growing economies of the world at present; and even though the growth rate has come down somewhat of late, official figures show that it still remains quite high. What is less talked about however is the fact that the magnitude of hunger in India today exceeds that of even sub-Saharan Africa, which is generally considered to be among the poorest regions of the world; and it also exceeds that of what are officially categorised as “the least developed countries”.

New Series for Economic Data: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

SO goes an old English saying. Statistics are prone to manipulation by the powers that be. Such manipulation is often used to portray a normally bad economic situation, particularly those aspects that concern the livelihood health of our people, in a rosy light. The recent change in the base year, the point of reference to measure changes in economic parameters, to calculate India’s GDP and other indicators is a case in point.

The Criminal Approach of the Shanta Kumar Committee Report

ON January 1, 2015 there were 3.68 crore tonnes of foodgrains in India's godowns. This is around one third more than the January buffer stock norm. Buffer stocks are decided for four different quarters of the year. Recently the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs reduced the norms for the buffer stock for two quarters. It was brought down for the January to April quarter from a norm of 25 million tonnes to 21.4 million tonnes, the norm for the quarter starting April has been reduced from 21.20 million tonnes to 21.04 million tonnes. The reduction of the norm has policy implications.

CPI(M) Releases Draft Political Resolution & Draft Review Report on Political-Tactical Line

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat along with Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and K Varadharajan released the Draft Political Resolution and Draft Review Report on the Political-Tactical Line for the 21st Party Congress in New Delhi on February 4, 2015 at a crowded press conference.

‘Obama Go Back’ Slogan Echoes Across India

BARACK Obama, Hands Off India' and 'Obama Go Back' cries reverberated across the length and breadth of the country on January 24 on the eve of the arrival of the US president in New Delhi to participate in the Republic Day Parade as the 'chief guest'.

Cuba: End of the US Blockade!

THE simultaneous announcements by Barack Obama and Raul Castro on December 17 that relations between the United States and Cuba would be “normalised”, has been one of the positive developments of 2014. Even within the United States, only a minority of right wing politicians have criticised the move by Obama to restore diplomatic relations after a gap of more than 50 years with an immediate neighbour. Within the Cuban-American community in the United States, the move by the American president has been widely welcomed.

Ideological Politics of BJP in Power

THE real essential goal of Hindu Sangh Parivar led and controlled by Mohan Bhagwat, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is to control the State power and its apparatus and instruments to establish a Hindu State and society in India.This is the reason why Mohan Bhagwat publically stated that it is for the first time after 67 years of India in Independence that a real Hindu government has been formed at the centre with RSS Pracharak Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs.

Misuse of Section 66A of the IT Act

The following is the press statement issued by the Delhi Union of Journalists on January 22:

DYFI Condemns Move to Install Godse Statue, Asks PM to Act

THE Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has strongly opposed the move of the Hindu Mahasabha to erect statues of Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, in major cities of the country. DYFI condemned the silence of the government in the matter.

The Central Executive Committee of DYFI submitted a petition to the Prime Minister and demanded that the government must firmly disallow all such moves aimed at promoting Godse cult in our country. It further said the central government must instruct all state governments to firmly disallow such plans.

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